Editor: I am responding to Tina Roberts` Letter to the Editor in the May 27th issue of the Cedar Key News. I have already talked to Tina to clarify some mis-information and to better understand her feelings. There are several things mentioned that are misleading and/or incorrect.
Although the waste hauling contract was open for bid, Waste Pro was the only company that presented a valid bid. Miss Tina mentioned that there was a phone poll conducted. As far as I know there was no phone poll taken, but a survey of residents was done in November to assess interest in curbside recyling and unit-based pricing. Then in February and March a petition was circulated throughout our community, face to face, neighbor to neighbor asking residents if they would support once a week trash pick-up in order to get curbside recycling. More than 250 signed this petition.
This new program will benefit businesses. For the first time, businesses will be able to reduce their trash bill by implementing a recycling program. Plus businesses will no longer be charged for how many chairs they have in their restaurant or by how many kitchen units they have in their lodging establishment (which did not seem fair, especially to those businesses struggling for occupancy).
As far as waste hauling services for aquaculture, old clam bags and cover net can be disposed of in the two dumpsters at the Shell Pile that are provided by Waste Pro and paid for by the City. Now let`s get to the math -- I do the math a bit differently. Regardless of anything, Waste Pro was going to raise rates by $2.50 on this 5-yr contract. A Waste Pro truck will still be coming by your house twice -- once to pick up trash, once to pick up recyclables - BOTH ON MONDAY. So by picking the $21.68 trash bin option, for 68 cents more per month, you will now have trash pickup and convenient curbside recycling. In addtion, as part of the new contract, your yard waste (which still will be picked up twice a month on the 2nd and 4th Tuesdays) will now be chipped and made available to you by Bill Campbell. Once a week trash pick-up is a reasonable price to pay for these additional services, but it does mean change.
Do I wish that more companies had bids? Yes. Do I wish that the pricing had come out better? Yes. Do I wish that the residents could have chosen an even smaller trash container that would have cost less than the old contract? Yes. But at this point it is what it is, and it was the best set of compromises that the City and Waste Pro could make.
On July 5th, the new solid waste program will be implemented. I appreciate that this is a big change from the present program; once a week trash pick up and curbside recycling. Sometimes the hardest thing to do is to accept change. That is understandable, but sometimes change is positive. At present, our beautiful islands produce over three million pounds of trash per year that is shipped to a land fill and never to be used again. Estimates are that over half of that could be recycled. We have to do better!
As seen with the current oil spill, our consumptive society will have consequences to pay for our energy and resource consumption. Try recycling, it is now more convenient then ever, doesn`t require much time and it is totally painless. Plus it is something that you can do on an individual basis, to be part of the solution. If other cities can reduce their solid waste by 50% or more, I do not see why Cedar Key, with all its uniqueness, couldn`t do that or better. Tom Deverin | 